Apple shareholders eligible for US$2.65 dividend today

Owners of Apple shares will be eligible for a dividend of US$2.65 per share today.

Since there are 937.4 million Apple shares, the US$2.65 dividend means that Apple is paying US$2.5 billion to its shareholders.

The current share price is US$619.86. Reuters noted that while the shares had fallen US$1.05 during the day, with volume at US$8.66 million (which is below the 50-day moving average of US$14.2 million), options volume soared to about 1.34 million (the daily average is more than half that at 600,000 options).

According to optionMonster.com Co-Founder Jon Najarian: “Traders buy those, sell them seconds later and exercise their right to turn the long call into stock, to trade into a long stock, short call position, trying to capture that [US]$2.65 dividend.”

Apple will start to pay out the dividend in the US on Thursday August 16 (Friday August 17 AEST)..

Wondering what to do with your dividend? The Motley Fool has some advice: The general consensus seems to be to reinvest.

If you have Apple stocks you only have a week to decide what you will do.